Real Talk

How I Was Raised I was raised in a strict “we don’t talk about taboo things here” house. I went through abstinence sex education during my time in Catholic middle school, but my take away from it was that sex is how babies come into the world. You have it once, you get pregnant and that is only when you are AT LEAST 25. We all know that is true ... I have had two kids; I have ONLY had sex twice in my life, right? However, I have no memory of either of my parents ever ACTUALLY talking to me about sex. So now I am a mom of two beautiful babes, one of whom will be a teenager in...

Recently and for the fourth time in my life, I had a baby and returned to work. Sure, saying goodbye to my baby when I dropped her off to the sitter was difficult. Certainly getting back into the busy routine was challenging. Of course having to put on real clothes was an obstacle. But you know what was the worst part of it all? Having to to dust off and and reunite with the ol' bag pump. The nursing pump. The bane of working mothers the world over! The blight of dedicated mothers struggling with latching! The burden of moms of preemies! And simultaneously the salvation for all of these situations. Yes, it's a love / hate relationship with that...

On Wednesday, I was planning on starting a silly post listing all the nonsense reasons why I am still awake at 11:30pm on a weekday. It’s a phenomenon I’m sure all moms have experienced. We are exhausted at the end of a long day of mothering, yet we stay up until the wee hours doing nothing, because we finally can. But there was nothing silly about why I was still awake at 11:30pm this past Wednesday night. Since mid afternoon, my heart had been flooded with the pain of the families and fellow students of the children involved in the school shooting in Florida, reaching a paralyzing crescendo when the final death count was announced. Seventeen people. How could this...

I'm tired, y'all. And I don't mean physically fatigued. I mean I am mentally exhausted. I'm sure you know the deal -- you've read the "invisible workload" articles -- but more importantly, you live the reality. You know exactly what I mean when I say that I am tired of having a monopoly on all family information. Something I once took pride in has come full circle to bite me in my big ol' butt: I am tired of answering everyone's questions and frustrated that I can! At some point, my husband and children came to the valid conclusion that Asking Mom was a much more efficient way of solving their problems than figuring them out themselves. I answer any...

I opted for natural childbirth with my first-born. I never really questioned if I would be able to do it – that’s the stubborn in me, I guess. We took the Lamaze classes and I read all the books. Without really knowing what to expect, I was “prepared.” I just kept telling myself it was like running a race, mostly all mental. And it certainly was a mental game of focus. But it was obviously very physical, too. Nearly a week late, the little man wasn’t leaving his cozy home without a fight. Or at least a hand on top of his head to get him stuck a few times on the way out. It was nine hours of...